Tesla Center Console

Tesla has followed a “clean aesthetic” for the car. Unfortunately this clean aesthetic for me went too far and there is no center console. I’ve been waiting for two years to get one and am more than a bit tired of my center junk floor.

Many years I go I realized that there are three places to keep simple items that you may need: your home, your office and your car. If you have those things there, you generally don’t need to carry them with you. The Tesla glove compartment is quite small and difficult to reach from the driver’s seat. So on the floor I typically have the following items:

Reading glasses and case

Sunglasses and case

A pen

Charger for my iphone

Napkins

Hand sanitizer (only because I hike in remote places)

At some point last year, the Tesla center console was finally available in my interior finish, Piano Black. I decided to order one. Earlier this year I got a phone call saying my center console was in and I can have it installed. I decided to do that at the same time as my annual service appointment.

When the driver arrived with the loaner, I had a discussion with him about the center console. He seemed very unimpressed with the center console and said a good 50% of the customers preferred not having it. He suggested I find a friend who had a center console. I know a few folks who drive Teslas, but no friends that I see on any regular basis nor any that have a center console. I also knew that other owners and reviewers had complained that the finish of the console was not the best but I knew that wasn’t my largest concern.

It turns out that the driver and I have the same iphone case made by Speck. He said that I may not be able to charge the phone in the dock with the case on! This feature is key for me. I love my Speck case because within the case you can put two credit cards, a $20 bill and an ID. I haven’t carried a wallet in about a year. Eventually I could envision an even smaller case once Apple Pay and other pay by phone mechanisms are more widely accepted. But if I can’t use the phone charging dock the center console is a dud.

Iphone Case by Speck

I am a huge water drinker, so the design of the cup holders is important but I have identified a set of stainless steel water bottles that I using in the existing cup holders. I am interested in larger cup holders for more flexibility with carrying larger water bottles.

Tesla service handled this situation well. The driver gave me honest feedback and Tesla has already processed my refund for the center console. The service manager noted

“I’ve continually asked the accessory team to provide one for show, for your exact reasons. So I will be sure to include your feedback when I ask them to refund your order.”

I have looked around the other third party consoles and none of them appear to offer exactly what I want, and I really want to see them in person! So for now I’m looking for a simple black box with a lid to keep on the floor. But after looking online for a while, even finding a reasonable looking black box with the right dimensions is not that simple.

10 thoughts on “Tesla Center Console”

1. The phone sits backwards so you can’t glance at it easily.
2. The center space focuses on a cup holder. I’m generally okay with the two I have.
3. The compartment doors for my “junk” seems pretty small and further back. Looks like space was sacrificed for the cup holder.

The official Tesla one had a larger junk space, although many people will use it for large drinks. I might too on occasion but could mix the functions.

Thanks. The phone storage of each doesnt bother me. I like the secret pocket on the front of the drivers seat for my phone. Great feature.

I don’t like the look of that big open cupholder in the CCI when its not in use. But the Tesla phone storage area seems almost useless if you don’t use it to store a phone whereas the CCI one is just a slot you can put stuff in. Is that not the case?

I also like the idea of being able to pop out the CCI one, not sure why Tesla didnt do that but its a cool “feature”. Thanks for the review!

I’d like to find something for this as well. I also want to find a box that can slide in and out of the compartment under the touch screen. I believe there are some good leads at the Tesla a Motors Forum. One post I remember has a link to an actual product that fits the dimensions of the center floor space. I’ll have to check there again, forgot about this project. If I find it, I’ll try to repost here. Cheers!

Unfortunately I have been told by the service people that the drawer is a bad place to put your phone. So you might want to take that out of your ads and website. There’s too much electric stuff going on there you can easily loose the bluetooth connection.

I’m really happy with the center console made by Tesla and seriously missed it during my week without a loaner.